This week, the staff at Murmur.com was kind enough to invite me onto episode 18 of the Murmur podcast for their second book club discussion. I was a bit comfortable on the air this time than during my last experience, and Paul Montgomery and I spent a good half-hour discussing Lev Grossman’s novel The Magicians.
If you’d like to listen to the podcast, you can stream the whole thing on the Murmur.com podcast post. You can also download an mp3 of the podcast, or subscribe to the podcast feed in iTunes or by RSS.
If you want to catch up on the community discussion of Grossman’s The Magicians, you can read the discussion questions and book comments here. We’ve also selected the next two book club books - David Grann’s The Lost City of Z and Joe Hill’s Horns.
And don’t worry, I’ll get a better mic before I podcast again.
Tags: Beer, Books, lost city of z, murmur, podcast, the magicians
About a month ago, the Hop Press at RateBeer.com hosted my first post about the beer, breweries, beer bars and other beer ephemera in the Pine Tree State. This month, I look at three of the fixtures on Portland’s Forest Avenue.
After a month away, it’s time to return to my look at the breweries, beer stores, brewpubs and bars of the Pine Tree State. For February, we’ll be looking at three popular beer haunts that reside on a mile-long stretch of Forest Avenue in Portland. For locals and visitors looking to experience what Maine beer has to offer, RSVP Discount Beverage, Maine Brewing Supply and The Great Lost Bear should be familiar names.
Check out my full profiles of RSVP, Maine Brewing Supply and the Great Lost Bear in my weekly column.
Send Josh to BEA! from Josh Christie on Vimeo.
Other idea on how to earn money for BEA; - Load my luggage and jacket up with logos from publishers, authors and bookstores who sponsor me like a NASCAR driver.- Help stores create “viral survival plans” for when The Passage turns out to be eerily prescient. - Come to your store and strip mass market returns to save you the heartache of hurting books. - Make a bookseller swimsuit calendar called “Feeling (Ayn) Randy?” - Name my next homebrew after your book and make some sweet-ass labels using the jacket art.
(alternate title; the books are weak?)
I know I’m about … oh, 9 months late posting this, but better late than never. Enjoy the awesome folks at Vroman’s acting out a bookselling-themed version of Baldwin’s epic speech from Glengarry Glenn Ross.
The scene starts at about the 1:55 mark, and I will be quoting it all day.
Flip It! from Patrick Brown on Vimeo.
Tags: bookselling, glengarry glenn ross, vroman's
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Bookseller or Book Provider?
Although I wasn’t able to make it out to California this year, the plugged-in booksellers at the conference have been making it very easy to follow the events of Wi5. In addition to the handouts for the sessions posted on the ABA’s site, Shelf Awareness has been providing great coverage of the event, and attendees have been blogging about the conference and tweeting out using the #Wi5 hashtag.
One of the main things I see coming out the conference (along with chatter about e-books, excitement about upcoming titles and continued worries about the economy) is a definite split between old attitudes and new attitudes about bookselling. The newer attitudes about how to succeed as an independent store by selling using a store website and social media, connecting with the local community, hosting events and finding alternative business models give me plenty of hope that the small local bookstore will survive well into the future. Unfortunately, there are more than a few stores - even stores that are connected enough to be tweeting about Wi5 - that are trying to address a 21st century customer with a 20th century model.
There are stores that simply want to be book providers, and these stores are going to die. There are stores that want to sell books, and these stores are going to thrive. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: bookselling, bookstores